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What, Exactly, Is Cultural Appropriation (And How Is It Harmful)?

Despite the fact that people of color (POC) are being imprisoned, deported, evicted, and murdered at atrocious rates, contemporary media often tries to imply that the US is post-racial and politically just.

In reality, capitalism has turned Indigenous and POC cultural items and customs — which are usually born of precolonial legacy and historical trauma, resilience, and survival — into an economic currency that in no way benefits the groups from which they were stolen.

This exploits and ignores the very real violence that interferes with the well-being of POC and Indigenous Folk around the globe.

This is the sort of racism that people, on an individual basis, can recognize and interrupt. Please watch this video from Marina Watanabe to learn how you might be perpetuating cultural appropriation – and not even known it – and why you should stop.

Click for the Transcript

MARINA WATANABE: Hi! Welcome to Feminist Fridays, a series where you explore the social, the political, and the media from a feminist and intersectional perspective — and use a lot of F-words.

On today’s episode of Feminist Fridays, we’re going to be discussing what has been by far the most requested video topic: cultural appropriation. If you’ve ever been to a Halloween party, then you’re most likely familiar with cultural appropriation, even if you didn’t know it at the time.

What is cultural appropriation? First, we need to define what culture is. The sociologist Nicki Lisa Cole defines culture as the practices, beliefs, ideas, values, traditions, rituals, language, speech, modes of communication, material objects, and performances that are essential to the social life of any given group of people.

Cultural appropriation is basically when you take something from a culture that you don’t belong to — such as a Native American headdress, like Coachella, and use it outside of that cultural context, usually without understanding its cultural significance, and oftentimes changing its original meaning.

For an example, the swastika, which we are all familiar with as a symbol used by the Nazis during the Holocaust. It’s probably going to be a swastika on the screen. We’re going to go with it. Originally, the swastika was used as a sacred symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism to represent prosperity, good luck, and liberation. However, it started being associated with rather opposite concepts in the 1920s when it was appropriated and bastardized by the Nazi party.

This is the perfect example of an outside group taking something of religious and cultural significance and changing its original meaning so that it’s no longer accessible to the group that is was taken from.

Modern examples of cultural appropriation include Katy Perry performing in a modified kimono and Geisha makeup, Katy Perry performing in a bindi, and just Katy Perry in general.

“Isn’t America supposed to be a melting pot?” The myth of the melting pot is an outdated model used to describe the equal blending of cultures to create one single new and better culture. However, most sociologists have scrapped this idea and choose to look at the blending of cultures like a salad. They all keep their own distinct shapes and flavors, and some cultures are more prominent than others.

Viewing America like a melting pot implies that all cultures are mixed and valued equally, which is not so much the case in the US. In the United States, you see a dominant culture that was originally established and enforced by white European colonizers onto the native people of the land.

An example of this is Christian missionaries forcing Native American children to attend Christian boarding schools. They were literally forced to give up their cultural values and language in order to assimilate into the dominant white society. You can also see tons of examples of this today, like the negative stereotyping of black culture or the enforcement of the English language on American citizens.

“What is the difference between cultural exchange and cultural appropriation?” Cultural exchange occurs when two groups on relatively equal footing — meaning one isn’t oppressing the other — share cultural items, ideas, or traditions with each other in a respectful and informed way.

A cultural group or group member is willingly sharing their culture with another group and defining the exchange on their own terms. However, we also need to look at the relationship between the cultural groups involved in the exchanging of culture.

Richard A. Rogers states in his paper “From Cultural Exchange to Transculturation,” “Cultural appropriation is inescapably intertwined with cultural politics. It is involved in the assimilation and exploitation of marginalized and colonized cultures and in the survival of subordinated cultures and the resistance to dominant cultures.” When looking at cultural exchange, it’s important to look at the power structures involved.

Is the culture being taken a dominant or subordinated culture? According to Rogers, there are two types of cultural appropriation: cultural dominance, which is when a subordinated group takes elements from the dominant culture. This is usually something that is imposed upon the subordinated group and is more commonly referred to as assimilation. When immigrating to the United States, it’s usually used as a tool to survive.

The type of appropriation we’re more interested in here is cultural exploitation, which Rogers defines as “the appropriation of elements of a subordinated culture by a dominant culture without substantive reciprocity, permission, and/or compensation.” The line between cultural exchange and appropriation can sometimes be blurry, and there’s a lot of gray area.

Here’s some questions you should be asking yourself before incorporating parts of a culture that you don’t belong to: Is it a genuine representation? Is it a sacred item like a Native American headdress or part of a sacred tradition or ritual? Who wears the item or participates in the tradition? Is it just anybody, or is it respected members of the community that have to go through a specific process in order to gain access to it?

If it’s an item you can purchase, who is laboring and who is profiting from it? Is it from a group that has been historically discriminated against? Might that group still be discriminated against today? Does the representation of the culture promote an exaggerated or a negative stereotype? This is something I particularly want to highlight.

Historically, stereotypes have been used to justify racism and discrimination against subordinated groups. For example, a couple hundred years ago, black men and black women were considered dumb, subservient, brutal, and like unto children needing guidance in order to justify slavery. By dehumanizing them, people were able to justify oppressing them.

It’s extremely important when exchanging culture to think critically about whether or not we’re using accurate representations and if those representations perpetuate negative stereotypes about the culture they belong to. Dressing up in a sacred Native American headdress for Halloween might seem like a really fun idea, but you need to think critically about what you’re actually doing.

You might have good intentions, but perpetuating stereotypes only simplifies and reduces those cultures rather than celebrating them. By reducing these cultures, we can reduce the people that belong to them and make it easier to justify their oppression.

Please read the following Everyday Feminism articles to learn more about cultural appropriation:

Marina Watanabe is a vlogger, blogger, overenthusiastic tweeter, college student, and creator of embarrassing literary tees. Her passions include putting off responsibilities and being sarcastic on all social media platforms. She is majoring in Women’s Studies with a minor in Communications at Sacramento State and hopes to continue using social media as a tool to discuss and raise awareness for feminist and social justice issues. She also runs a Tumblr called Everyday Harassment that serves as a safe space for women to share their stories and educate others on the nature and frequency of sexual harassment. Check out her Tumblr, or follow her on Twitter @marinashutup!